[DrCoras]

Well, copying the race should be pretty straight-forward. The only roadblock is that you'll have to manually copy the data, rather than making a copy and doing some slight edits.

If you open up the editor, the race is on the Race, Metahuman subtab of the Race tab.

If you hit the New (Copy) button, you should see Bovine Shapeshifter close to the top of the list. Now, when you copy it, the editor will tell you that you can't save it. Which is fine, you can use it to go through the data and see what you need to change.

Next, hit New (Blank) to make a fresh blank race. Name it something like Bovine Shapeshifter (Errata). From there, just go through the Copy and fill in all the information the same way. The Magic is actually a scripted event, so you can just not add that. Otherwise make sure you go through and copy everything else.

Once you have everything copied (make sure that the tags and bootstraps also match), then you can also add the Dual-Natured, Regeneration, Allergy, etc) as bootstraps also.

Excellent! It worked like a charm and now all I have left is to create my character! I spoke to my GM today and he already knew the basics of my backstory, but he said considering the direction I am headed and the story I gave, he would need me to be a physical adept, not a mystical adept because his reasoning is that I messed up the village be being inept at spellcasting.

He also suggested(not required) that I take the negative quality Borrowed Time and I am being hunted by the spirit I loosed upon the village and when the roll hits it will mean it catches up with me and at that time he and I can discuss if I am powerful enough to defeat it (burn edge to remove quality) or if it bests me (die in spectacular fashion)

Since he and I are big on RPing and storytelling I think it's a great idea. Hopefully I will have a build up in the next few days for you guys to take a look at!

Thanks again for all the help, everyone has been awesome!

[Kiirnodel]

I think it is worth pointing out that Physical Adepts aren't just inept at spellcasting (or summoning), they are flat-out incapable of doing it. If the situation we're talking about involves the character failing to summon a spirit, then they can't just be a physical adept. That would be like expecting a human to fly.

Now, with a Mystic Adept, the character could have attempted to learn summoning and failed so spectacularly that it caused problems. This might be a good reason to take the Incompetent (Conjuring) quality. The end result would be the inability to learn how to conjure, but the character still has the potential to do it.

You're new to the game, so I completely support having your character be simpler. Honestly, its a big undertaking to make a Metasapient as your first character, so sticking with Physical Adept is probably a good idea. I just wanted to point out that the background story might need some tweaking to make that part jive correctly with the setting.

Another tip on background, Shifters don't generally congregate into villages, mostly because their natural form is the animal, not humanoid. Now, Shifters that walk in from the wild in the NAN are offered SINs and would likely be welcomed into society. You could have walked in and joined a NAN tribe near Denver, still placing you in the right area for the game (I think?). A Shifter joining the tribe might have been a big deal, leading to the extensive magical training they attempted to give you. And the excitement might have then led to their overestimation of your capabilities. After the mishap, they could have blamed you, leading to the casting out.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of Borrowed Time. And if you're deciding to be a Physical Adept, you couldn't have been the one to conjure the spirit (as much as the village might have blamed you for it). But if you're ok with having a timer leading to when you're character dies, cool on you. When a Spirit goes Free, strange things can happen.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Yeah, 'shifter is not the direction I would have gone in order to get more 'in tune' with the world before playing something really out there.  :/  That's primarily because playing a bovine shapeshifter means that you're whatever form of cattle first and human fifth.  Or sixth, or eighth - something that you can do, but you have the mind of a herd / prey animal.  Which, if you get back to the whole 'village' thing, might instead be your herd ...

[Hobbes]

Shifters are Awakened versions of the Animal form.  If you were the only Sapient  being in the herd (pack, family group, whatever) why would you stick around once you were aware of Metahuman civilization?  I get that some would, but those folks are not Shadowrunners.  They're feral Shifters living out in the middle of nowhere. 

If you're making a Shifter who happens to be a Shadowrunner, then probably you're one of the Shifter sorts who think living in an Apartment beats living in a cave.  Just sayin'.  The most famous cannon Shifter blends completely into the Runner Community and Metahuman Civilization and doesn't spend her down time hanging out in the Zoo's tiger pen.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

(Canon, not cannon.)  Actually, the famous canon shifter - for those not familiar, that's Striper, a tiger shapeshifter who worked as an international hitter - didn't quite blend in completely, and retired to the wilds of Maine in order to breed and have kits, only coming out of retirement when the aforementioned kit was kidnapped.

And the answer to 'why' comes from the essence of the entity - 'because I am a bull, and this is my herd'.  'I am a panther, and this is my hunting territory.'  'I am a wolf, and this is my pack.'  The primary reasons for a sapient animal (shapeshifter or not) to begin interacting with metahumanity is because metahumanity can assist them in something their baseline form needs to have done, or because metahumanity is threatening them.  Defend their territory from a very dangerous encroaching creature (like a juggernaut), or prevent hunters from killing so many of their herd.  What happens once they get a taste for that - well, the evolution from that is probably why there's shadowrunning shapeshifters, neh?

In any case.  My primary point wasn't really about 'why play a shapeshifter at all' (I mean, I've played two), but that 'playing a shapeshifter is a tough first character when you're trying to learn the SR universe'.

[Tarislar]

Right now we have a Troll bruiser, a technomancer(can't recall race), an Elf Face, an Elf Stealth Street Samurai and me!

Now, the GM did ask that one of us have some type of astral affinity even if not a magician, and since I tend to be the type to write a story for a character and then create them, it was handed to me.

I have decided I want to make a Sasquatch Adept. The basic story is that I was training under the Shaman of my clan to take over when he died since I was the son of the eldest(kinda like chief) even though I showed minimal aptitude toward spirit summoning. It seemed the only thing I was good at was the most basic of astral abilities, punching and defending. The shaman just pushed me too far too fast and wildly overestimated my abilities, until one day I summoned a spirit I couldn't control. Not only that, it was a malevolent spirit, and it ended up killing several of my clan members before the Shaman was able to banish it. Since it killed my father, I didn't have the protection of a leader on my side and I was cast out.

I was thinking about Meta(A) Attributes(B) Magic(C) Skills(D) and Resources(E) since I will have limited skills and resources having been living on the streets and coming out of the forest. Our face(the one I helped) is Resources(A) and has vowed to take care of me(she's a den mother character).

As several have stated, most the Metasapients from RunFaster are going to be hard to play.
They all come with significant downsides.
Also as mentioned the tribal backstory doesn't fit well since few of them are tribal in organization.

Overall I think the group could use a Human since there are already 3-4 metahumans in it & the NAN will fit your background story.

My suggestion to keep something similar would be the following.

1.  Change to Human, specifically, Native American.

2.  Go Physical Adept & reserve 2 power points for Astral Perception & Innate Spell (Make it a nice AE like Ball Lightning/Fire Ball & have the devastation of your village be from miscasting it.

3.  I'd suggest the following set up.
Attributes-A,  Magic-B (Sioux),  Skills-C,  Cash-D,  Human-E

B3, A6, R5, S3, W5, L3, I5, C2

28+4=32 Skill Points & 2 Group Points
Group-Athletics-2
Assensing-6
Longarms-6  (Sniper+2)
Perception-6  (Searching+2)
Sneaking-6
Spellcasting-6
Unarmed Combat-6

I'd push hard into the Elemental Body line to go with the above mentioned Perception & Spell.
Toss in some Combat Reflexes, Increased Reaction, & Agility Boost & you'll be set.

I'd go Beasts Way & look at Eagle as a solid mentor choice


6.0 Power Points:  (Mentor & Way in Bold)
0.25-Agility Boost
0.5-Astral Perception
1.5-Improved Reflexes
0.0-Combat Sense
0.5-Elemental Strike
0.5-Elemental Body
0.25-Enhanced Accuracy (Longarms)
1-Innate Spell
0.5-Killing Hands
0.5-Motion Sense
0.5-Traceless Walk


Between your Energy Fists, a pair of long guns for "hunting", & a Nuke of a spell, you can handle anything thrown at you in combat.
You also have good scouting skills to back up the samurai or climb to a snipers perch.

[DrCoras]

I think it is worth pointing out that Physical Adepts aren't just inept at spellcasting (or summoning), they are flat-out incapable of doing it. If the situation we're talking about involves the character failing to summon a spirit, then they can't just be a physical adept. That would be like expecting a human to fly.

Now, with a Mystic Adept, the character could have attempted to learn summoning and failed so spectacularly that it caused problems. This might be a good reason to take the Incompetent (Conjuring) quality. The end result would be the inability to learn how to conjure, but the character still has the potential to do it.

You're new to the game, so I completely support having your character be simpler. Honestly, its a big undertaking to make a Metasapient as your first character, so sticking with Physical Adept is probably a good idea. I just wanted to point out that the background story might need some tweaking to make that part jive correctly with the setting.

Another tip on background, Shifters don't generally congregate into villages, mostly because their natural form is the animal, not humanoid. Now, Shifters that walk in from the wild in the NAN are offered SINs and would likely be welcomed into society. You could have walked in and joined a NAN tribe near Denver, still placing you in the right area for the game (I think?). A Shifter joining the tribe might have been a big deal, leading to the extensive magical training they attempted to give you. And the excitement might have then led to their overestimation of your capabilities. After the mishap, they could have blamed you, leading to the casting out.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of Borrowed Time. And if you're deciding to be a Physical Adept, you couldn't have been the one to conjure the spirit (as much as the village might have blamed you for it). But if you're ok with having a timer leading to when you're character dies, cool on you. When a Spirit goes Free, strange things can happen.

This is perfect! Your ideas and throwarounds are exactly what I needed to finish my character. Taking a mystic adept with the Incompetent (Conjuring) ability is 100% perfect for him. And your last paragraph was already where I was going anyway. Basically a bison bull living near Laramie and somehow I ended up alone, maybe injured when rest of herd left or rest of herd hunted and killed.

I'm found by a local tribal group and even though I had been able to shift before, it didn't serve me well in my herd, but now I do it out of desperation in front of whoever finds me and they treat it like a sign or an omen. They take me in and the shaman grooms me to be his replacement. While I show an excellent affinity for most spellcasting, my conjuring is terrible. Like you said the excitement leads to overestimation when I eventually summon a spirit that wreaks havoc. The shaman chases off the spirit but not before it does huge amounts of harm, but after he does, he curses me to walk in human form until I am able to find and kill the spirit. Now, he may not have the actual ability to do so, but I don't know that and I assume my shifting won't work when I try it and that doubt is enough to make it actually not work. I am ashamed and blamed and am kind of told to leave and leave out of guilt. Little bit of both.

I end up in Denver, and it gives future hooks to the GM. I spoke with him about it and he LOVES the idea, he did say he wanted us to only use Core and Run Faster for creation, but I got the go ahead to take Sioux as my magic type and to take Beast's Way. But nothing else outside of those 2 books.

Tarislar and Wyrm, I do appreciate your input and definitely did think about it and discuss it with my GM, but in the end he felt that my idea gave him some good setup and also works with me looking human. He did suggest I might want to take Masking early, I will have to look into that.

We will be playing Sunday so I am hoping to get the full character up before then for you guys to look at and critique, but even if I don't, we've all usually been pretty cool with retroactive changes when things obviously don't work. I just finished running Way of the Wicked(PF) for them and we felt the uniqueness of being evil was kind of a gateway to trying more unique ideas and systems and since the GM is most familiar with Shadowrun after PF it was a perfect opportunity.

thanks again for all the help guys, you really have been a wonderfully welcoming and open community and I look forward to having a new system to play for years to come!

[Vassago]

Have Fun!
After the game you'll need a [Logic+Willpower] (6) Addiction Test, or you'll become addicted to SR5

[Kiirnodel]

Glad I could help. Good luck with your game, sounds like you and your GM have some good story to work from.